May's Top Beginner's Targets

May presents some wonderful observing opportunities this year.

Starting off with the naked eye, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower should peak on the weekend of May 5.   With the new moon this should provide for excellent viewing in the early morning hours.

Telescope Targets
Many of March's and April's targets are still available for viewing. See those month's picks for these targets.

We'll add a couple of globular clusters to our hunt this month.

M3 in Cane Venatici is one of the brightest globulars in the sky (along with M13 and Omega Centauri). To find M3, use the end star of the big dipper's handle (Alkaid) and the very bright star Arcturus. About halfway between these 2 stars and slightly to the west is a dimmer star called Beta Comae. Place Beta Comea at the edge of your finder's FOV (moving to the east), at this point, M3 should be at the opposite edge of the finderscope field. Center M3 and enjoy the view! Don't be afraid to increase the power on this one and see how many individual stars you can pick out. The good news is that M3 should be bright enough to be seen even from moderately light polluted locations, the bad news is that Beta Comea will be invisible to hop from. I've managed to find M3 by using Alkaid and Arcturus and scanning the area halfway between them with the scope at low power (albeit somewhat challenging). M3 contains as many a 500,000 stars packed into an area of space approximately 200 Lightyears in diameter. It is located approximately 40,000 lightyears from us and it's age is estimated at 10 - 15 billion years old.

M53 is another globular cluster which is located in the constellation Coma Berenices. Using Arcturus and a much dimmer star just to the west (Muphrid) as our distance measure go approximately twice this distance and slightly north to M53. M53 will take somewhat darker skies to locate than M3. M53 contains approximately 100,000 stars spanning about 300 lightyears across. It is located approximately 65,000 lightyears from us.

Also in Coma Berenices is a fairly bright galaxy, M64 (The Blackeye Galaxy). Just north (up from) of M53 is M64 (about the same distance as the distance between Arcturus and Muphrid. Distance estimates to this Spiral Galaxy range from 10 - 40 million lightyears. The size estimates for this one range from 25,000 to 100,000 lightyears in diameter. You will need dark skies to hunt this one down.

Planets
Mercury makes an appearance low in the west just after sunset at month's end.

Mars is still hanging in there low in the west at sunset.

Jupiter and Saturn are lost in the sun's glare this month.

Well, that's about it for May, clear skies and good hunting!